Looks like the Denver International Airport's Mustang of the Apocalypse controversy made the New York Times. Fun read on the whole thing. Check it out.

[via The Egotist]

Posted by James at 09:13 PM | Permalink

The F1 season gets started in 33 days, and I'm flipping out I'm so excited. The Egotist posted the video below, which does a fantastic job demonstrating and showing the new 2009 rule changes. Check it out, get excited, and try not to laugh at Sebastian's accent. M'kay?

Posted by James at 10:41 AM | Permalink

In case you haven't seen this yet, this is David. He went to the dentist. They gave him some drugs. David's dad brought the video camera. Hilarity ensues.

Here is a fun little remix as well.

Is this real life?

Posted by James at 10:50 AM | Permalink

Tilt-shift photograph is defined on Wikipedia as:

The use of camera movements on small- and medium format cameras. In many cases, it refers to tilting the lens relative to the image plane and using a large aperture to achieve a very shallow depth of field. The technique relies on the Scheimpflug principle and usually requires the use of special lenses.

If that made as little sense to you as it did to me, I think the easiest way to explain tilt-shift is to say that you can make a photo of the real world look like it's a picture of tiny models. Tilt-shifting seems to be all the rage right now and there is a lot of cool tilt-shift work coming out as of late. A prime example is this video of a real monster truck race, but that's processed like a tilt-shift photo:

Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Pretty neato, huh?

The thing is, I figured that no matter how much I like the tilt-shift style, I'd never be able to make my own since I can't even understand the definition of what tilt-shifting actually is. But since this is the Intarwebs, someone has taken the time to create a website that allows you to take your own photos and make them look like tilt-shifts. The site is called (big stretch on the name here) TiltShiftMaker.com.

Here's an example of what you can do. First, a photo from Tenerife in the original form:

and here is the post tilt-shift version:

Fancy, eh?

Now if I could only figure out how to use this technology to make my feet look smaller in photos...

Posted by James at 07:13 PM | Permalink

I've been a big fan for a while of the Take Away Shows that star some of the most known and up-and-coming musical artists playing their music in interesting locations around the world (read: not on a stage).

The recent videos of the delightfully rough around the edges Seasick Steve really embody what makes the shows so amazing. Not only is the music fantastic, but every frame of the video looks like it could be a standalone photograph worth framing.

Here are the two videos, but for higher quality, downloads, and more shows check out the La Blogotheque site. And if you have an iPod, make sure you subscribe to their podcast.

Seasick Steve - A Take Away Show - Part 1 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Seasick Steve - A Take Away Show - Part 2 from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

Posted by James at 03:43 PM | Permalink

I ran across the Graph Paper Press site today and I was delighted to see someone working hard creating fantastic looking WordPress templates that are worth paying for. Truly delightful to look at...and based off the features listed, look like they would be fun to use as well.

Check them out, and if anyone has gotten a chance to use one of these templates, please let me know how it's working for you.

Posted by James at 04:08 PM | Permalink

I'm a big fan of pictures, and I can't tell you how excited I was when I came across this Polaroid application from, who else, Polaroid!

[via The Poverty Jet Set]

Posted by James at 07:28 PM | Permalink

I just finished watching one of the most interesting Frontlines I can remember. The episode was Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.

It's an amazing story of the impact of a political mastermind (for better or worse) on the Republican party and American politics in the 80s. Terrifying and captivating all at once.

Posted by James at 08:56 PM | Permalink

This week all of the Formula 1 racing teams are preparing for the first ever race at night. The venue, the city of Singapore.

I think I speak for every F1 fan in saying that this weekend's race should be unbelievable.

So how are the teams preparing for racing under the stars? Here's a funny little video from the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team that pokes fun of what not to do to a multi-million dollar, aerodynamically hyper-sensitive racing car....

Well done boys.

[via AutoBlog]

Posted by James at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Democratic National Convention started in Denver today. Sound like things are getting quite wild in the city and Kristi and I are hoping to head downtown tomorrow night to see the show.

To get in the mood for the event, I've been reading Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72, and I've been startled by some of the similarities between then and now. A good example of this is the following excerpt from the book (pg 174):

"I've always thought that the blue-collar vote had to be a source of his strength," said Frank Mankiewicz, McGovern's main strategist. "It always seemed to me that McGovern-not as the anti-war candidate but as the change candidate-would appeal more to Middle America than he would to any other group. They're the ones with the most to gain from change and they're the ones who get screwed by the way we do business in this country."

Funny how so little has changed in the last 36 years.

Posted by James at 08:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

"All you can do is admit to yourself that yes, this is an adventure, and to accept it as such, surprises and all. With a little bit of practice you eventually get into the flow of it."

Hugh at Gapingvoid seems to have gotten a bit more reflective as he finishes up writing his book. Check out this post - which is where I pulled the quote above. And if you don't read that, read this one, but both are worth the time.

Timely stuff for me, and I'm guessing I'm not alone.

Posted by James at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

First off, I gotta say, Skype (or Skippie as my dad would say) has been a Godsend for Kristi and I. There is nothing cooler than being able to talk, with video, across the globe, for free.

Due to the time zone situation (8 hours difference), Kristi and I usually Skype when she's at work. Funny thing is, she doesn't want people to think she is crazy, since she uses her computer's built in mic and a pair of headphones to chat.

So what is she to do? Fake a cell phone call, that's what. Here's a picture from our chat tonight. I can't stop laughing when she does this:

Hilarious I tell you!

Posted by James at 02:52 PM | Permalink

I finally got a Skype account set up. Seriously, it was crazy easy to get going on both a Mac and a PC (I hooked up Kristi's computer as well), so you have no excuses for not getting an account.

Once you have everything set up, add me as a contact...my username is jomdahl, or just type in Jomdahl. C'mon, free calls and video chat? No brainer.

So what are you waiting for? Get Skype!

Posted by James at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well heck. It's been a long time, hasn't it?

The reason for my absence from Marketing Punk has not been for a lack of things to post...just the total lack of time/ability to post.

Let me explain.

In the past three weeks I have:

• Traveled to Barcelona, Spain for a job interview
• Received an offer for the job
• Moved from our place Uptown to a new place in Cheesman Park
• Accepted the offer for the job
• Given my two weeks notice at the job I've been at for 5 years

Quite eventful, eh?

Now I am:

• Getting settled into the new place in Cheesman Park with Kristi
• Wrapping up things at my old job
• Getting ready to go to Barcelona for a month for work - I'll be coming back after the month and working from home. Looks like I'll be traveling to Spain about 6 times a year.

This weekend was truly the first time I've had a full nights sleep in about a month...hopefully that will be the norm going forward.

Needless to say this is an exciting time for both Kristi and I. I'm sure there will be many more fun posts coming at more regular intervals. But for now, a photo from Spain...

Oh yeah. And in case you are wondering, that's Kristi and my little yellow car in the background.

Posted by James at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I'd never heard about Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain before, but thanks to my dad, I know about it now - and it RULES.

The first line from the Forbes article my dad gave me says it all...

"If you've ever thought while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, "You know, this is nice. But wouldn't it look better set on fire?" then las Fallas--Spain's annual homage to everything explosive or combustible--is for you."

To learn how the citizens of Valencia work all year to build million dollar statues, only to blow them up in a matter of minutes, read this article.

It kinda makes that Burning Man look like a biatch, eh?

Posted by James at 07:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I mentioned a little while back that I might be speaking at a conference this September in Dallas about online branding and reputation management...well, that was confirmed, so I will be a speaker. Needless to say I'm excited as online reputation management and branding is of great interest to me...but it seems like I'm not the only one who's thinking this topic.

Here's a video from the social media Super-Hero Gary Vaynerchuk talking about how the tech world of 2008 = the hip hop world of 1985.

God, Gary is a stud.

Posted by James at 08:33 PM | Permalink

Three cool things I came across today:

1) South Park decided to release EVERY EPISODE, ONLINE, STREAMING for FREE! TOTALLY AWESOME. Check it out at www.SouthParkStudios.com.

2) I grew up next to a big sledding hill. and stuff like this always happened. But not to reporters, and especially not to bad ass reporters like this:

Reporter Owned By Sled - Watch more free videos

3) This is Imogen Heap giving us a great example of what you can do with talent, a multitrack recorder and a voice:

Posted by James at 08:08 PM | Permalink

Great find by Seth Godin. Check out this video, and for you marketing folks, think of how what happens in this video applies to your work…

Posted by James at 03:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If anyone wants to give me a random gift for well, being me, might I suggest the KORG Kaossilator? The Kaossilator is like a small electronic music production station that fits in your hand. I ran across it on the Poverty Jet Set blog, and spent the next hour watching videos and doing research. Here's a little video that shows you what it can do (it's a little annoying but you'll get the idea)...there are plenty of others on YouTube.

Posted by James at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the companies that seem to be getting some attention at SXSW is Qik - a new service/site that allows you to stream video from your cellphone to the Internet. Not sure if this will be the next killer app...but I could see this becoming a new tool for the Uber-Geeks.

It's amazing how my perception of video is going from something that lives on a videotape, to something that lives on a cloud of servers.

So far it looks like Qik only supports Nokia phones, so if you've got one, head over, get signed up, and let us know what you think.

Here's an example of a Qik video of the space shuttle launch this morning...the quality is crap, but it's still interesting.

Posted by James at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

ARGH!!!

As I'm watching all the excited Twitter chatter about the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference/festivals coming up next week, I'm kicking myself for not being there this year. Yeah, Josh and the Bregar told me to go, but I didn't listen - so here I am, being bummed that I'm not going.

Next year my friends, I will be there. Oh yes, I will.

Posted by James at 06:48 PM | Permalink

Really nice article in Westword on Denver's Magnet Mafia. You can see the article here, and you can hit up the Magnet Mafia site here.

Posted by James at 07:38 PM | Permalink

...you know who you are. (P.S. - this video has boobs, butts and bad words.)

Yes...it's an inside joke. :)

Posted by James at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ok, so I could come up with some wild marketing analogy to go along with this clip. But I'm not going to because Ligers, ladies and gentlemen, speak for themselves...

http://view.break.com/438567 - Watch more free videos

Posted by James at 07:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Something to keep in mind when you wake up every day:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

- Mark Twain

Thanks and congrats to Leo at Zen Habits.

Posted by James at 06:59 PM | Permalink

The people over at The Denver Egotist, Denver's de-facto haus of all things kühl in the adver-world, have an opening for a new Egotist. That's right folks, you could be a part of the Egotist team and get your opinions/writing in front of all of the most important adver-people on the Denver adver-market.

Yes, "adver" is my favorite prefix...if you don't like it you can adver-bite me.

Where was I?

Oh yes - essay contest. So yeah, if you want to get on the Denver Egotist all-star team, all you need to do is write up why you would be a great Denver Egotist and submit it to the[at]denveregotist.com. Make sure you read up on the rules and regs right here.

Seriously, if you are trying to make a name for yourself in the Denver market, this would be a great opportunity. Word on the street is that all the directors at Denver ad agencies bow down to the clan of the Egotist.

Posted by James at 07:44 PM | Permalink

No, I didn't grow up on a Japanese game show. But if you ever slept over at a friend's house, and had to keep quiet so you didn't piss parents off, you'll remember the feeling these guys are going through.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Look at it this way, if a Japanese game show can tap into that "be quiet or my parents will kick our asses" feeling from childhood, maybe your company can find a way to tap into those common childhood feelings to build a connection with your customers.

Think about it.

[Thanks to the Zen Habits blog for pointing out this video and 9 other great videos in this post.]

Posted by James at 09:22 PM | Permalink

They are on Craigslist right now. Get them while they're hot.

Posted by James at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The New York Times has come out with its list of 53 places to go in 2008. Check out the full list here.

If there is anyone out there who, by chance, works for the New York Times and would like to send Kristi and I on a trip to visit all 53 places...let me know. I think we could handle the assignment. :)

Posted by James at 07:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The title of this post is a quote from an interview with the late author Kurt Vonnegut. Here's another quote I like:

Interviewer: “A lack of seriousness,” you wrote, “has led to all sorts of wonderful insights.”

Vonnegut: Yes. The world is too serious. To get mad at a work of art — because maybe somebody, somewhere is blowing his stack over what I’ve done — is like getting mad at a hot fudge sundae.

Both these quotes are good to keep in mind during your day-to-day living. Along with this speech from Jim Valvano three weeks before his death:

Thanks to Megan Mahan and Tim Ferriss for pointing these out and giving me a little perspective (something we all can use more of 99% of the time)..

Posted by James at 09:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by James at 07:26 PM | Permalink

It was about 30 degrees outside.

Posted by James at 10:29 PM | Permalink

Here's a list of the things that Apple will and won't let you get engraved on an iPod.

Here's some favorites of mine, first off, things you can't have engraved:

10,000 Stolen Tunes Inside
Not to be used as a suppository
Lick My Shiny Metal Ass
Something small & white that Enrique Eglasias Isn't In
Steal this? Will self destruct when used
Screwing The RIAA One Download At A Time

And now for some funny ones that were accepted:

This engraving has lowered my resale value
To all the Chinese children who made my iPod, Thanks!
Me vs. RIAA: Exhibit A
98% Liberace-free
Your mamma uses a walkman.

and my favorite...

CDs are for amish people!

[Thanks to FSJ for the point]

Posted by James at 09:12 PM | Permalink

Over the Thanksgiving break I read Alex Roy's book, The Driver. If you're a car/rally nerd like me, I'd recommend it. While some of the spiritual aspects of the book get a little annoying, hearing real stories from Gumball and Bullrun made reading the book well worth it.

Not surprisingly, the book ends with Roy's record setting trip from New York to Los Angeles in 32 hours and 7 minutes, which from a technical and giant-set-of-brass-balls standpoint is pretty phenomenal. Here's a little about the car that Alex made the run in...

Here's a link to the book:

The Driver: My Dangerous Pursuit of Speed and Truth in the Outlaw Racing World

Get it for all your car loving friends. Merry X-mas.

Posted by James at 07:00 PM | Permalink

Having a friend who's a pilot is pretty cool.

Having a friend who's been on the news is also pretty cool.

Having a friend who's a pilot and has been on the news because his landing gear didn't go down and he had to do a belly landing with his flight instructor on Thanksgiving is REALLY COOL.

So Kevbo, thank you sir for being really cool. Glad you made it down safe and sound, and glad they got the whole thing on tape.

Beers are coming your way good sir, you can be sure of that.

[Here's the link to the story on the Fox 31 site...and if you didn't click above, here is the video.]

Posted by James at 07:12 PM | Permalink

Tinariwen is one of my favorite music groups thanks to a blog post from Hugh MacLeod a while back. I ended up listening to them as I traveled across Italy with Kristi, and as far as traveling music goes, Tinariwen is tops.

Who is Tinariwen? Well, I lucked across this documentary on YouTube that will give you a good idea. Needless to say this group is a product of their environment, and their environment is harsher than most of us can ever imagine.

If you have the time, watch this video on Tinariwen, and if you like what you see, download their music...it will change how you think about music, I promise.

Posted by James at 10:42 PM | Permalink

OOOOOOOOOOOK...my small obsession with the Benny Lava video has taken a new turn...could be for the worse. Turns out the guy who did the English sounds-like translation for Benny Lava, Buffalax, is doing translations for a bunch of foreign language videos. Check out this Indian version of Michael Jackson's Thriller, which shall be referred to as "Girly Man" from this day forward...

Special bonus...very special:

Posted by James at 07:35 PM | Permalink

My Uncle Todd passed this on to me...it gets funnier every time I watch it. It starts kind of slow, but get better and better as the video goes on.

Posted by James at 07:09 PM | Permalink

Alex Roy calls the video below a "snuff film" for auto enthusiasts. Shot in Paris in 1976 the driver, highly respected French director Claude Lelouch, drove his Mercedes 450 SEL 6.9 across Paris at top speed. The result is something that's scary, amazing and hard to believe all at once.

Enjoy.

Posted by James at 06:58 PM | Permalink

Fridays. You've got to love them. You might remember the "Benny Lava" jam I pointed out earlier this week (it's the second video in this post)...well this Friday a couple of my coworkers decided to break the monotony with a little dance party, India style.

In this video Eric and Maribeth (a.k.a. Beef) are both watching the Benny Lava video and trying to mimic the dance moves...with varied success.

This might be one of those things that's only funny if you know the dancers, but whatever, makes me giggle...

Posted by James at 10:07 PM | Permalink

Thank God for all the different countries on this planet. Why? Because different countries (namely Japan and India) gave us these amazing videos. Enjoy...

Also, make sure you check out pictures from my sister's big adventure on the ice (hint PENGUINS)!

Posted by James at 07:18 PM | Permalink

On a lighter note...

At 3 mins and 23 seconds this video kicks all ass.

Posted by James at 07:33 PM | Permalink

Yeah - I'm bragging. My sister is BFFs with Ann Curry from the Today Show...here is a picture of them totally chilling and taking about the pressures of life in the fast lane:

Actually, Ann is at McMurdo reporting about the end of the world, um, global warming, and she has been drinking heavily with the McMurdarians to keep warm. Here's the story from Laura.

Oh yeah, and speaking of the end of the world, here is a very informative video that describes what could cause the demise of us all. Strangely, the scenario in the video was not covered by the Today Show...

Posted by James at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ok, so I'm not going to avenge my family because there is nothing to avenge, but I am heading to Juarez, Mexico for the next few days to build a home for a family in need. This is the first trip like this I've taken since Kristi and I went to Africa to paint an orphanage and I'm excited to get my hands dirty and do something meaningful.

Needless to say, there won't be much blogging until I get back, which will be on Wednesday. Send your good vibes to all of my cohorts and coworkers who will be headed south of the border tomorrow.

[Thanks to this person for the photo.]

Posted by James at 11:04 PM | Permalink

This has got to be one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while. The Eye-Fi is a 2 GB memory card with built in wi-fi, so you can upload photos to the web and your camera by just turning it on. Wild.

Check out the Eye-Fi site for the rundown - at only $99 I think I need one.

[Big ups to Lifehacker for the link]

Posted by James at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I was quite excited to see that this blog, in all of its randomness, has been added to The Denver Egotist's blogroll...which is quite an honor when you see the other local blogs that are listed. I'm realizing I need to add a blogroll of my own on this blog.

Not surprisingly I feel a bit more pressure to write about marketing related stuff since this recognition from the Egotist...but in the mean time here are some videos of FIRE ANTS!

Posted by James at 06:08 PM | Permalink

Index cards...if you're like me they remind you of college and studying. But now that you've gotten through that, is there any other good use for business cards?

You bet your butt!

Web Worker Daily put together together a list of 24 uses for those fun little rectangles of paper including everything from a hipster PDA to writing a novel. Check out the article here.

Posted by James at 08:41 PM | Permalink

Today was an amazing day - Kimi Raikkonen, a total long shot for the Formula 1 world championship, won the Brazilian Grand Prix and took championship in an amazing race. Here's the story. Congrats to Kimi and the whole team at Ferrari!

Not sure if this is going to get me any closer to convincing Kristi to let me name our first born male Kimi Raikkonen Omdahl, but it couldn't have hurt. :)

Also, it snowed for the first time this season...pretty exciting for us snow lovers.

Posted by James at 09:08 PM | Permalink

For anyone who has had a long road trip, you can imagine how boring a cross-country drive could be. But what if you drove from New York to LA in 31 hours? I would imagine things would be a bit more exciting, especially because you would have to average over 90 mph the whole way. That's what Alex Roy of the infamous Team Polizei did recently...he even wrote a book about it.

Here is the article about the record setting drive from the New York Times and here is the full version from Wired.

Also, check out this picture of me at the 2006 Gumball 3000 rally with Alex's back-up car, a Bentley Continental GT, which was packed full of police jamming equipment and even ran with a helicopter escort. Crazy.

Posted by James at 12:52 AM | Permalink

Have you ever had a rental car or borrowed a friend's car, had to put gas into it, and not known which side the damn gas cap was on? I have, and it sucks. Especially when you pull up to a busy gas station and have to do the side-switch of shame.

Well, it turns out there is a trick to knowing where the gas cap is, and it has to do with that little icon on the gas gauge. What to know the trick? Check out this awesome tip from Autoblog.

Posted by James at 08:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you are looking for a laugh tonight, enjoy this clip from the late and great Mitch Headburg...

Posted by James at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ever wonder what would happen if you live according to the bible, I mean literally. This guy did, and he wrote a book about it.

Next, this video shows what white trash does when they need to start a bonfire.

Finally, my sister posted some pictures from Antarctica - flippin' awesome.

OH YEAH!!! IT'S ONE YEAR TO THE DAY TILL KRISTI AND I GET MARRIED!!! YES!!! I took this picture today and it seems weddingy, so here ya go...

Posted by James at 07:27 PM | Permalink

Posted by James at 09:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here's some links I've been meaning to pass along...enjoy:

One crazy rally car crash.

Ig Nobel Awards - Make sure you read the part about the Gay Bomb

The CargoLaw site...a pain to navigate but full of gnarly pictures of cargo ship sinking, crashing, etc.

And finally, a classic headline from CNN.com:

Sounds like the editor knows what's up in the sack, eh?

Posted by James at 06:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Freelance Switch had a very cool (but apparently error filled) article on a place called Independent's Hall. What is it? Freelance Hall is a shared workspace for freelance workers to get together and work in a (fun) office-like environment. Check out their site here.

Unfortunately for most of us, Independents Hall is in Philadelphia...and that's a heck of a commute from Denver.

Posted by James at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hey hey hey! As many of you might already know, my big sister Laura is leaving for a four month stint in Antarctica in a couple days. We are all getting together for a send off dinner tonight, which should be fun.

I just finished working on getting her blog, Laura on Ice, put together and I am hoping it gets some serious use over the coming months. I don't know about you, but the idea of being in Antarctica is totally fascinating to me.

Posted by James at 02:32 PM | Permalink

Kristi and I went on a date tonight to the "Untitled" show at the Denver Art Museum. It happens every last Friday of each month, and it is a lot of fun. Here is the link to the information. And here are some photos:

Continue reading "Date Night at the DAM" »

Posted by James at 10:55 PM | Permalink

Ok, I'll give Lilly a pass on Norway since she is only 23 months old.

Big ups to Jessica for the link.

Posted by James at 10:05 PM | Permalink

I saw a website a while back and it came up recently in conversation...pictures from a motorcycle ride inside the dead zone of Chernobyl. Look at the site here to see some really creepy/interesting stuff.

Continue reading "In the Chernobyl Dead Zone" »

Posted by James at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Via Yahoo News, you could almost buy Belgium on eBay. Very cool.

Posted by James at 09:45 PM | Permalink

See, I wasn't lying...Danger Bird was in fact on CNN. Here is the video below - thanks to my hero Cassie for recording it for me. You rule C-BIZ!

Posted by James at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the issues facing many geek marketers is that we have too many blogs/social networks/RSS feeds that we're publishing, and most people find it hard to keep track of all of them. A recent article from Steve Rubel has pointed out a way to combine all of our electronic outputs into a Tumblr "lifestream."

Tonight I decided to try to set one up, and 15 minutes later, the James Omdahl Lifestream was born. Currently the lifestream has my this blog, my work blog, as well as my Google Reader shared articles. I'm sure I'll add more to it soon...to me, this is very cool stuff. The best thing is that the lifestream is populated by RSS feeds, so I never have to directly post to it if I don't want to.

So if you want to see all of what I'm working on, keep an eye on my lifestream...

Posted by James at 07:47 PM | Permalink

HOLY CRAPPER! If you ever went to Showbiz Pizza or Chucky Cheese as a kid, this video will give you more flashbacks than that brown acid from Woodstock...

Big ups to Megalamooha and The Denver Egotist for this amazing jem of techno-insanity,

Posted by James at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hot Damn! I just got the word that Danger Bird will be on CNN's News to Me on the Headline News channel. Should be on twice on Saturday and twice on Sunday, so set your DVRs...and make sure you record it for me.

You see, I won't be able to see it (nor will any Comcast subscribers in Denver) because stupid flippin' money stealing COMCAST cuts off the last five minutes of every hour of Headline News to show some low budget attempt at the local news. AND Danger Bird will be showing, you guessed it, in the last five minutes of the show.

Rat Bastards.

Luckily we'll be in New Mexico this weekend, so hopefully we'll get a chance to catch it.

If you feel like taping Danger Bird for me and sending me a copy, I will owe you a beer or five.

(For exact show times check your local listings, but I think the times are 10:30am and 3:30pm each day mountain time.)

Posted by James at 07:37 PM | Permalink

Tonight I upgraded my MacBook Black from 1GB of RAM to 2GB...and it only took 10 minutes. Seriously, if you're using a 1GB MacBook, do yourself a favor and upgrade yours to 2GB.

Apple makes the upgrade easy by having directions for the upgrade right in the MacBook manual...but here is the thing, don't rely on Apple for the RAM itself, since they charge $300 for it. Instead, by from a third party like Other World Computing, where I got mine for $100. Here is the link.

OH YEAH! If you are going to get a MacBook Black, DON'T BUY IT AT THE APPLE STORE! If you buy though this Amazon link you don't have to pay tax (saves you about $125) and you get a $100 rebate!

Thanks to the Bregar at TechBandito for showing me how to buy this stuff and save myself a bunch of money.

Posted by James at 07:14 PM | Permalink

I wrote about this at work today, but I thought it could be useful to the people who read this blog as well. The topic, the MindMeister mind mapping web application.

Mind maps are a great way to get your thoughts together and get them out of your head and on paper. MindMeister is a free application you can use to make collaborative, shareable and exportable mind maps.

Check out MindMeister here, and learn more about mind maps here.

Posted by James at 07:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I ran across this video that Electronic Arts put out of the long anticipated Sims-like game called Spore. Chances are I would never buy it for the same reason I'd never shoot up heroin. Too addictive. Good work on the game trailer though...

Posted by James at 07:05 PM | Permalink

It arrived today...happy birthday to me. So far, I'm loving it.

Posted by James at 08:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Well, the inevitable is coming. Since I’ve decided not to wait for my laptop to melt in my lap and burn my jewels in the process; it’s time for a new laptop. And that laptop will be a Mac.

Let me assure you I will do my best to avoid being one of those Mac people.

I will not tell you that my Mac can solve all of the world’s problems. I will not spout poetically about my Mac’s ability to make me look sexier in my glasses. And I promise I will not put an ugly ass Apple sticker on ANYTHING I own.

But I’m getting a Mac.

May God have mercy on my soul.

Highly appropriate image from GapingVoid.com.

Posted by James at 08:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post, I ran across this video on Autoblog. The details are iffy, but if you want to see what it looks like to race a superkart, in Isle of Man, here you go…

Needless to say, I want one.

{Favorite quote from YouTube – “How do they fit their giant testicles into such a small vehicle?”)

Posted by James at 07:58 PM | Permalink

Today Kristi and I headed out to the Littleton Grand Prix to see some of the future race car drivers in the world. The drivers, who ranged from 5 to 12 years-old were racing go-karts that could really haul butt (the 6 year-olds were driving karts that could go 40 mph!) I took a few pictures, so here are a couple...

This is a picture of Mario Jacobellis - he could be then next great race driver. He is six and already a national karting champion.

See the rest of the shots here.

Posted by James at 08:37 PM | Permalink

ALERT!

I joked a couple of times that Danger Bird would never show on CNN due to some calamity in some other place...and I was kind of right. I received an email from one of the producers at CNN that Danger Bird has been bumped due to coverage of the tornadoes in NY. Go figure.

The good news is that Danger Bird will air sometime in September (hopefully early September). In the mean time, hold tight and I'll holler when I get an exact date from my peeps in Atlanta. :)

Posted by James at 10:18 PM | Permalink

This has to be one of the most amazing nature scenes EVER captured on tape. If you haven't seen this before you must watch the ENTIRE VIDEO - it will blow your mind.

Posted by James at 09:15 PM | Permalink

It’s official, Danger Bird’s Ride will be show this weekend (August 11th and 12th) on the CNN show News to Me. The show can be seen on the Headline News channel (not regular CNN) and will be shown at 12:30pm and 5:30pm EST on both Saturday and Sunday. For my local peeps that’s 10:30am and 3:30pm MST on Saturday and Sunday.

As the man on the TV says, check your local listing. :)

Posted by James at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hey hey hey! I just cranked out a fairly long email to one of the producers of the CNN show News to Me explaining what happened in the Danger Bird video. After talking with the producer for a couple weeks I’m happy to report that Danger Bird will be appearing on CNN next weekend on News to Me!

Pretty cool, eh?

So since I’ve been writing already tonight, and I really want to get to the new episode of ‘’No Reservations” I’m going to post a couple of quick links I found interesting today.

The first is from my home slice Mz. Pocket, whose main squeeze is off lawyering in Brussels right now. After seeing this site she made a special request that he tries out this crazy ass restaurant before he leaves.

Also interesting today, the author of Fake Steve Jobs has been outted…and it turns out he is an editor at Forbes. Here is the whole story. I’m kind bummed this author was a professional…but either way, the blog still rules.

Alright, that’s all I got for tonight! I’ll keep you updated as I know more about Danger Bird.

Posted by James at 08:24 PM | Permalink

Meet Jessica...

Posted by James at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, after two weeks, Danger Bird hit 100,000 views, 199 comments, and 677 ratings on YouTube. Pretty amazing. It seems that the key to viral video success are birds riding on cars.

For those who are curious, the only things I did to get the video promoted was submitting it to Digg and StumbleUpon. While it’s hard to see how StumbleUpon helped exactly, I know the video went to the top of Digg’s most popular videos on its first day out, which how the video really started going viral.

Interestingly, a lot of views came from a Dutch site called Flabber, and also a site from Asia called Hiroburo. I guess DB is appealing around the world.

So if you want to see it one more time, here is my friend Danger Bird:

Posted by James at 06:47 PM | Permalink

This story’s got it all, exotic cars, a celebrity, and….um….Colorado?

Anyway, I love this story, and don’t worry, it’s got PICTURES!

Praise be to Autoblog for the find.

BONUS! - Clarke this one is for you (more praise to Autoblog for this):

Posted by James at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I’m not even going to try to explain WeFeelFine.org to you, because I don’t think I can do a very good job putting it in words. What I will say is that it is one of the most interesting sites I have seen in a long time and looking at it can make you smile, laugh, frown and even well up with tears in a matter of minutes.

Check out the site by first looking at the methodology, then go to the homepage and click on “Open We Feel Fine.” Once it is open, click on the shapes that are moving around the screen and see what happens.

Fantastic.

Posted by James at 07:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A couple of good friends of mine have started up a new tech blog called Tech Bandito that you ought to check out. Not only did they get a bad ass domain name and logo, but these two guys are tech gadget freaks, so you know this thing is gonna be good.

So check out the best new tech blog on planet earth.

Posted by James at 07:31 PM | Permalink

Well, I spoke at the High Tecc conference today and I think it went pretty well. There are a bunch of things that could have gone better – but after a few cricket moments things started rolling along quite well. My speaking partner, Megan, did awesome and all in all I’d say we succeeded in “winning” the conference, as she would say.

Just a quick update on the Danger Bird video – currently the video is up to 70,000 views, with 608 ratings, and 108 comments. I’m hoping to have the time to do a longer write-up on the whole experience, because the process of watching one of my videos “go viral” has been really educational and interesting.

Alright, that’s all for tonight. Time to kick back and watch Anthony Bourdain wondering around New Zealand.

Posted by James at 07:23 PM | Permalink

I was driving to work this morning and stopped at a light. I heard some chirping coming from my rear-passenger side window. When I looked back, there was a bird trying to stand on the outside of my car. I figured it would take off when I started driving....I was wrong.

Meet DANGER BIRD!!!

Posted by James at 07:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's been a while since I pulled out my N-Strike Unity Power Rocket Launcher, but when I do, I go all out.

Posted by James at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have a feeling my blogging quotent will go down a bit this week. The reason is that I’m getting ready for my second-ever speaking gig at the High Tecc conference in Vail on Monday (you can see the details here). I’m starting to feel more prepared for it, but every once in a while, I start to feel like this:

Luckily this go round my friend Megan will be presenting with me, so if I get some, say, explosive David Herrera before the I have to speak, she can cover my section and give the whole presentation.

Not saying it will happen, but a few 7 Layer Burritos from Taco Bell sound like a good pre-speaking lunch.

Anyway, as I scramble to prepare, the blogging might fall off but it’s for a good cause.

Posted by James at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, after much proselytizing by Hugh MacLeod about the virtues of Facebook, I finally signed up for an account. About ten minutes after I signed up, I was hooked. The same thing happened to Kristi.

My initial thought was that Facebook was going to be like another MySpace – luckily I was wrong. The most important difference is that Facebook doesn’t allow its users to turn their page in to psychedelic cluster f. of visual retardation. This is great news for lovers of visually attractive webpages and epileptics alike.

So if you hate the ever-loving crap out of MySpace, and you want to hook into the love that is Facebook before Google gobbles it up for a couple billion, head on over and get signed up.

Bregar, that means you buddy.

Bonus: for your evening entertainment...

Posted by James at 07:05 PM | Permalink

Aw man. I heard about the Fake Steve Jobs (FSJ) blog last week, but finally checked it out for the first time tonight and I’m dying over here.

Here are a few choice posts so you can get the flavor:

Ay dios mio! I asked for a MacBook!

Hey I'm a Mac and I camped out in a mall for a week to get these clothes even though I could have just walked in and bought them

How cool is the iPhone?

(This one rules because of the picture of Bill Gates) Chinese women want Chairman Bill's man gravy

Keep up the good work Fake Steve Jobs…

Posted by James at 08:34 PM | Permalink

One week after ordering them, I received my mini-cards from Moo all the way from London. As advertised, they are awesome. Here’s a picture of some of them; I used pictures that I took with my Holga camera…

Seriously, if you need cards, get ‘em from Moo…they’re my new best friends.

Posted by James at 07:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today was my sister Laura’s 31st birthday and we celebrated by having a mini Mini Cooper rally up Mt. Evans. Thanks to my father’s stable of Mini Coopers, my sister, parents and I all got to race our way up the 14,300 foot mountain in two suped-up Mini Cooper Ss.

Here is a time-lapse video from the drive:

Here are just a couple of the photos we took...

Continue reading "Laura’s 1st Annual Mini-Mini Cooper Birthday Rally" »

Posted by James at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

So good...

Posted by James at 12:25 PM | Permalink

I finally put my money where my mouth is and gave my first loan through Kiva.org. Yeah, it’s just $25, but my hope is to make a $25 loan every paycheck I get, and I figure every little bit helps.

My first loan was to a young man named Abdul Sabor Abdul Gafor. Here’s Abdul’s story…

Abdul Sabor lives in district 15 of Kabul, Afghanistan. He has the responsibility for supporting his family because his father and mother died in an explosion in Kabul 4 years ago. He is the youngest of his brothers.

He sells cosmetics on the street in the city. He took his 5th cycle group loan and bought shirts, clothes for children, and some extra things and is doing a good business. He wants to take anther loan to rent a shop and expand his business to support his family better than now. He would like to thank AFSG for helping him.

If you want to give a loan to Abdul, you can do it here. And if you want to learn more about Kiva and their other potential loan recipients, go here.

[Update: About two hours after posting this Abdul's loan was fully funded. I never realized how fast these loans are getting made...amazing!]

Posted by James at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Thought #1

In a world where “Brand You” is a lot more important than the brand you work for, does it make sense that the only time you have a business card is when you work for a company?

Thought #2

When I come back from conferences with a pile of business cards the ones I always remember are the ones that are out of the ordinary. Odd shapes, unexpected pictures, etc. always make for a remarkable business card.

Recommendation

If you don’t have a personal business card, it might be time to get some made up. And if you want to have something both personal and remarkable, check out the mini-cards from Moo.com. Moo let’s you make business cards from your photos on different photo sharing sites like Flickr – and the Moo site will actually connect to your account, making the card creation process a cinch. For $19.99 you can get 100 cards made up, and the amazing thing is that you can get your 100 cards made with up to 100 different pictures.

So what’s stopping you – get some cards made up for yourself. I promise they will be a lot more memorable than the ones the give you at work.

Big up to Copyblogger for showing me Moo...

Posted by James at 08:00 PM | Permalink

Had a fun time watching the US Grand Prix and eating lunch with my dad and the rest of my family today. As always, my dad had some fun new toys for us to play with...

Posted by James at 04:20 PM | Permalink

My family went rafting this weekend. If you ever thought I was a silly person, I'd like you all to meet my father, Clarke. I'll let you guess which one he is...

Posted by James at 07:20 PM | Permalink

Check out this picture that was taken yesterday at the Canadian Gran Prix. The driver was Robert Kubica, you can see him there with the orange helmet. This is what the car looked like once it came to rest after rolling a couple of times.

The unbelievable part is that after that crash Robert was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion and a sprained ankle.

Posted by James at 07:15 PM | Permalink

#1

#2

Enjoy.

Posted by James at 07:27 PM | Permalink

Recently I read Seth Godin’s new book The Dip and one thing that really stuck out was the idea of being the best in the world at what you do. As one of the first pages in the book says:

Being the Best in the World is Seriously Underrated

Today Kristi and I had the pleasure of enjoying a Colorado Rockies baseball game with my sister Laura and then got to have dinner with her friend Ryan who is the best in the world at what he does. You see, Ryan is a remarkable member of the Rockies baseball team. Ryan’s not a pitcher or outfielder, but he is the famous Rockies’ “jacket guy.”

What is a jacket guy? It sound simple enough – the jacket guy takes the pitcher’s jacket (which keeps the pitcher’s arm warm) from the bullpen to the batboy in the dugout. Ryan has taken a job that might not sound so exciting to most and turn it into something that regular Rockies fans (and the US media) has turned into something of a phenomenon. You see, Ryan doesn’t just take the jacket to the batboy, he runs like (as a Denver newspaper says) “he is being chased by a wild animal” on and off the field. In the process he gives the fans and players something to watch, cheer for, and enjoy.

Does Ryan have to run? No.
Does Ryan run every time he gets on the field? Hell yes.

Now Ryan doesn’t run because it’s in his job description. Ryan runs because that’s what Ryan does. And in the process, he has become the best damn jacket guy in the world.

If you’re not the best in the world at something yet, maybe you just haven’t tried running yet.

Posted by James at 07:43 PM | Permalink

My Canon SD750 (a.k.a. the sweetest camera on the planet) has a cool time-lapse feature that takes one frame every one or two seconds depending on how you set it. Today’s wild weather around Denver gave me a perfect opportunity to capture a little time-lapse action…

Posted by James at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you have ever wanted to understand what is great about Formula One auto racing, you’re in luck. This weekend Formula One races in Monaco, the principality that reflects all that is glamorous and exciting about F1. So if you’re up for it, tune into the Speed Channel on Sunday morning…or set your Tivo, the race is on early.

Posted by James at 09:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I’m a big fan of travel shows, and new favorite is Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Anthony is a skilled and entertaining writer, and it shows up on the screen in his monologues. My personal favorite episode is the one where he goes to Uzbekistan and gets a terribly painful “massage” from a short oiled-up Uzbek man in a small cloth speedo. Classic stuff.

If you have the travel channel, I highly recommend it.

Posted by James at 09:05 PM | Permalink

These are my parent's dogs. I dig them the most...

(there is no sound on this video clip)

Posted by James at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Click through to see this hilarious video...

Continue reading "Better Pay Your Rent or Pearl Will Get Ya." »

Posted by James at 08:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I’ve always appreciated graffiti art. Not the pointless tagging stuff that has been way to prominent on the Denver streets as of late, but the real neat looking artistic stuff. Unfortunately, I was not born with the ability to paint anything other that shades of white onto sheets of drywall.

So I was awfully excited when I found the Graffiti Creator. It lets you become a killer graffiti artist right on your laptop. The site can be a bit buggy, but it’s easier to deal with the bugs that it is dealing with an evening locked down in county. Give it a try…

Posted by James at 07:44 PM | Permalink

Two items this evening.

The first may seem a bit out of character, but my experiences in life tend to align fairly closely with what is discussed in this (yes the site is cheesy). Laugh if you want, but if you are an open-minded person, you might want to take the time to watch/read it. Your choice.

Second, kids rule…and parents that appreciate them rule even more. May I present exhibit A. (Thanks to Mz. Pocket for the link).

Posted by James at 08:38 PM | Permalink

I got my new digital camera yesterday...a very lovely Canon SD750 with a black eye. I've just started messing with it...and I'm pretty excited about its coolness. Actually, it makes me do this -

It's nice having a digital camera to compliment my $20 wonder.

Posted by James at 07:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Thanks to Autoblog for making me aware of is particular awesomeness. See more of the race on YouTube.

Posted by James at 08:04 PM | Permalink

I’d been seeing mentions of Justin.tv all over the place but just kind of ignored it, but today I read this article to get up to speed (you should too). In short, Justin.tv is a real-time broadcast of Justin Kan’s life. Word around the campfire is that Justin.tv is wildly boring and wildly addictive.

But feel free to make the decision for yourself…here’s Justin.tv:

Posted by James at 07:16 PM | Permalink

I decided to mess around with Google Co-Op tonight and put together a graffiti art search engine. I found a couple dozen sites that seem to be good sources on urban art forms and combined them to put together this search engine.

You can use it below or on its Google co-op page – and if you want to make sure your site is included, send me an email at james (at) marketingpunk (dot) com.

Posted by James at 07:55 PM | Permalink

Posted by James at 09:13 PM | Permalink

There is some really cool fine art on the recently redesigned Obey Giant site. Make sure you check it out – and if you have $400 some of this stuff might be a good investment. A couple of the prints I bought a couple of years ago have increased in value by over 10x.

If you are looking to decorate your foyer, I suggest this print:

Posted by James at 08:44 PM | Permalink

Not sure how long this video will stay up until the copyright police take it down, but in the mean time, please enjoy this Top Gear segment on the most remarkable car on the road right now...

Posted by James at 08:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I keep hearing about Twitter and how it was the big thing out at the SXSW conference – but let’s admit it, Twitter seems like one of those things that many people play with but very few will use once the novelty wears off.

With that said, David Troy created a Twitter/Google Maps mash-up called Twittervision that is pretty darn cool. It basically shows you people “twittering” real-time. Check it out.

Posted by James at 08:16 PM | Permalink

Things are finally thawing out here in Denver, so Kristi and I decided to go hiking. I forgot what a rad rock climber I am. :)

Check out other amazing pictures that Kristi took here.

Posted by James at 08:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As Ice Cube would say, today was a good day. You see, today I worked in a snow storm putting floor joists into a home for Habitat for Humanity. I had an amazing time doing it and I learned a lot in the process. Most importantly, I learned that I really suck at hammering. Exhibits A and B:

A:

B:

Seriously though, if you have a chance, take a day and go build a house with Habitat – the Peanut will thank you for it.

Posted by James at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I think we all get a little annoyed when we run across a person who parks like a complete toolbox. You know, the SUV that is parked in two parking spots, or the compact car that is parked about thirty degrees off of straight, or the Lamborghini that's parked in a…ok, so I just wanted to use one of my Gumball Rally pictures.

None the less, if you are sick of people that park like idiots, the folks at I Park Like an Idiot (.com) are there for you. You can buy packs of 20, 40 or 100 stickers to use to mark the cars that aren’t really living up to your high parking expectations.

Much respect to Tumbleo for the point.

[Note: I figure this might be a more manageable crusade for me, since the SEO Sheister thing went over like Dick Cheney at a Taliban chili cook off.]

Posted by James at 08:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I recently started getting Step Inside Design magazine and it has turned me on to a lot of really cool designers and their work. Tonight I was checking out the site for Pocko, a publishing house/creative agency/community. So stop reading this and go take a few and explore the Pocko site – I think it’s really awesome.

(The image here came for a screen grab on the Pocko site.)

Posted by James at 08:21 PM | Permalink

Here are some B&W Holga shots I took recently. There is kind of a train theme, you can see them all at Flickr too...

Continue reading "Holga Black and Whites" »

Posted by James at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Most all of us get it at one time or another – and some of it get the lust more severely than others. The site A Year in the Life is the journal of a Brit’s year-long trip to get away from his normal life and into the life of a traveler. The site documents his trip through Asia, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

So if you are feeling like wondering, but you’re not going to get away anytime soon, live vicariously through A Year in the Life…

[One question - why is it that Brits always seem to get a chance to do this kind of thing?]

Posted by James at 07:32 PM | Permalink

Posted by James at 09:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I first heard of StumbleUpon at the Search Engine Strategies conference in August, but I never really thought much of it. From what I heard, it sounded a lot like Digg or Del.icio.us, but smaller. I ended up forgetting about it on the way back from San Jose.

Then last month, I wrote a post on my day-job blog that ended up getting a couple hundred visits from StumbleUpon. Pretty cool, I thought. After visiting the site and opening an account I lost interest and stopped messing with it.

Over the last week or so, Danny Sullivan (a big guy in my industry) has mention StumbleUpon over and over again on his daily podcast. Danny kept saying that he loved the site and that it was a great way to get traffic to his site, Search Engine Land.

Since it sounded like there could be potential to get some visibility for some of our projects at work through StumbleUpon, I ended up checking it out again today, and I gotta say, I’m loving it.

Continue reading "It’s Time to Start Stumbling" »

Posted by James at 07:00 PM | Permalink

Here is my second roll of film from my Holga camera. Still learning how to work the darn thing. Between forgetting to take off the lens cap, overexposing, underexposing and having to completely guess how to focus it – I am lucky to have pictures as well. This one is my favorite I think:

Here are the rest (and here is the Flickr link to them as well):

Continue reading "Latest Round of Holga Shots…" »

Posted by James at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My Uncle Todd, the man behind Cool Fonts, and a video/TV/commerical/etc. pimpducer (pimp + producer) has put up a couple of his music videos from 1985 on YouTube. Both are pretty fun to watch, but Blind Rage is not good if you are susceptible to seizures. You have been warned.

Oh yeah, and remember kids, just say no. :)

Newt Farms

Blind Rage

Posted by James at 07:29 PM | Permalink

My dad, a.k.a Mini Freak is gonna love this one.

You see, he is a Mini Cooper owner (actually he has two right now), and he loves “motoring” in his Coopers. I can’t blame him - the Mini is blessed with a great design and it provides a really good driving experience. But there is one thing that really makes the Mini successful beyond the usual car stuff – the Mini community. If you have seen a Mini commercial, billboard, or print ad, you know the Mini goes out of its way to make Mini owners feel special…

The latest incarnation of Mini giving its owners a figurative hug are the new personalized billboards that are showing up in San Francisco, Miami, New York and Chicago. The personalized Mini billboards sense when a registered Mini driver with a RFID equipped key fob is coming by and then it displays a personal message to the Mini driver like “Motor on Bob,” or “Hi Clarke, Nice Day for Your Convertible.”

Pretty neat stuff. For a brand like Mini who benefits so much from their brand evangelists, this is an amazing way to reinforce their best customer’s buying decision.

Big question for all of you out there running your business…what do you do to make your best customers feel special?

Posted by James at 07:36 PM | Permalink

I’m not sure how it happened, but creativity has become part of my profession. An interesting turn of events, especially for someone who thought he would spend his life bullshitting people over the phone to get control of their cash.

Thank god that didn’t work out.

But as I become more involved in creative activities, I also realize that being creative all the time ain’t exactly easy. Which brings me to the link for tonight - Hugh MacLeod’s “How To Be Creative.” I think I have posted it before, but recently Guy Kawasaki linked to a fancy PDF version of the essay that I have never seen before.

Fancy or not, I think “How To Be Creative” is one of those things that is worth revisiting.

And yeah, that is a wall of gum...

Posted by James at 08:34 PM | Permalink

So I figure there are one billion blog posts today that talk about the iPhone, but this might be the only one that will be optimized for searches containing iPhone, sex, guns, and/or porn. Way to go me.

The iPhone is pretty amazing though. I think everyone who carries a cell phone and an iPod around in their pocket all day (like me) will really appreciate having their phone and iPod all in one. Of course, that brings me to my two concerns about the iPhone.

Number one, the damn thing might not fit in my pocket. I am not totally sure how big the thing is (actually I do - 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches), but based on the photos next to a hand, the damn thing looks big. And I am not a fan of carrying a phone holster (it looks bad with my…well, everything) – and no matter how cool something is, I don’t want to wear a holster for it…unless it is a firearm.

Number two, the iPhone looks like one giant screen…and since the first thing I did with my iPod Nano was protect the screen with an aftermarket screen protector, I don’t have a whole lot of faith in Apple’s ability to build a durable screen. And even if I do manage to shoehorn the damn thing into my pocket, I will have to make sure I have lined my pockets with super-soft microfiber from Switzerland (they have the best microfiber) so I don’t tear up the damn screen. Or I will have to put it in a big old protective case…and that means a holster. Which brings me back to number one.

Maybe Apple should add a derringer to the iPhone…then I would be happy to strap it to my belt.

Oh yeah, one more thing – why the hell do I have to switch to Cingular to use an iPhone? That sucks.

So will I buy an iPhone when they come out in June? No. Am I excited to see what the iPhone turns into in the next three or four years? Yes. Do I feel sorry for the R&D teams of all of the major cell phone producers? You bet your ass.

And if those Scandinavians at Nokia come out with a phone/music player/revolver, I’m going to sue.

Posted by James at 08:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

For Christmas I got a Holga from my good friend Mz. Pocket. No, a Holga isn’t a big-boned Swede lady - it is a Chinese camera that is made almost entirely of plastic, including the lens. Holgas have gained a cult following for the artistic photos that they take, the ultra ghetto-fabulousness of them (it is recommended to keep a rubber band around them so they don’t bust open), and it doesn’t hurt that the camera costs about $20.

Admittedly, I am no artist, but I have always enjoyed messing around with cameras. To see the photos from my first roll of film on the Holga, click here. (Warning: some of the photos didn’t turn out at all, but I included them anyway.

Posted by James at 08:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This morning I was eating my breakfast, watching the traffic report on our local Fox station when this happened:

What a cool way to start the day. It turns out it was a Russian rocket booster that was buring up on reentry. Here is the story from Fox news - please don't laugh too hard at their commentary.

(This isn’t the original live video – it’s the replay they did afterwords, but when it happened live they all were freaking out.)

Posted by James at 07:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This Christmas I was lucky enough to get an iPod Nano (Thanks Kristi!). I have a Shuffle and I have a Mini, but I just couldn’t help but lust over the Nano. The thing is beautiful and amazingly small. It makes me go crazy.

But that is not why I am going crazy tonight. Tonight I am going crazy over Nike +.

Nike +, for those who haven’t heard is only like the coolest thing ever invented for running (except for maybe shoes and spandex). Nike + is system that wirelessly connects your iPod Nano to your Nike shoes and keeps track of your walks or runs on your iPod. The system checks time, distance, calories, etc. You can also download your runs onto the Nike + site and challenge other members of the Nike + community to running contests for things like calories burned and distance run. Also, you can have a voice talk to you during your run and tell you how far you have gone, how far is left, etc. (Here is a good review of Nike + from USA Today)

So I guess what I am trying to say is Nike + has got to be one of the coolest things I have heard of in a while. I mean, I want it and I want to run…and the last time I ran (two months ago) I ran about 200 yards and almost died…thanks smoking! (I quit four years ago).

Oh yeah, did I mention you can make awesome looking custom running shoes? Make yours here at NikeID.

And no, Nike didn’t pay me to write this, but if they want to send me a pair of those custom shoes I will happily take them :)

Posted by James at 07:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Posted by James at 08:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After a 3-day “blizzard break” from work I am now on an extended “holiday break” until after the New Year. With things being fairly slow this time of year at work, it is a great time to take a week off, relax, and try to get the “life” back in the work-life balance. With that said, the blogging might be a little light this week.

Christmas turned out really nicely. My grandparents came into town for the holiday, which is always a treat. They always tell fantastic stories from their amazing lives and adventures. Also got to spend time with my family and Kristi’s family, got to tear apart a home entertainment unit with my dad, eat a lot of tasty food and exchange cool presents with my loved ones.

I also got to experience what it feels like to pilot a German engineered, finely tuned, luxury-sled on Christmas eve…at least for 15-feet until my journey ended in the back end of a Jeep. It seems that fricton, gravity, and other laws of physics were not on my side. The picture below is of the minor aerodynamic re-engineering the Jeep did on my “schlitten.”

So off to the body shop tomorrow. And in case you were wondering, no one was hurt…the collision happened at a whopping three mile-per-hour.

Posted by James at 09:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It’s been years since I have had a snow day. Actually, the last time was my freshman year of college back in January of 1997…which was almost a decade ago…wow.

Because of the snow, I have been locked up in my house all day, hanging with my girlfriend and cruising the Internet looking for something work related to do. I ended up building a couple of Squidoo lenses today – one that lists the video blog wrap-ups we did at work and one that aggregates various viral and word of mouth marketing RSS feeds.

A few months after building my first Squidoo lens, I will admit I have mixed feelings about the site. I don’t really think there is all that much money to be made on Squidoo, and it seems like Squidoo pages really don’t pull much weight in the search engines. On the positive end, I do see Squidoo as a good place to put together resources and group together various links you find. As I have mentioned before, I really like the idea of people doing research and then aggregating the results in one location where other people can benefit from the research that was done.

One big complaint I do have is the wild number of AdSense ads that appear on the lenses I created. I mean, eight ads on one page? If I was trying to make money on my lenses, that would be alright. But I’m not and it makes the page look a little more spammy than I would like. I wish there was a way to turn down the AdSense a tad.

Posted by James at 07:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Oh the holidays…they get a little crazy. I will warn you now that my posts may be few and far between over the next week or two. I have been storing up some videos links to share, so I figured I would do that tonight.

Continue reading "A Few Video Links of Fun" »

Posted by James at 09:35 PM | Permalink

Alright, I’m not a citizen of Second Life, so saying that Second Life terrorists are cool might not be totally kosher. But I do think it is interesting that there is a group of people who are trying to make changes in the Second Life world through their extreme actions. And hey, at least they aren’t doing it in real life.

The terrorists group in this case is the Second Life Liberation Army. Here are some choice posts about the SLLA:

The Marketing Vox article (where I started reading about this)
ReveNews’ interview with an SLLA member
Second Life Liberation Army on Wikipedia
The SLLA Declares War on Second Life Citizens
Video of a Terrorist Attach in Second Life (sounds more exciting than it is)

[Bonus: Clickfraud on Google AdSense ads might be funding terrorist groups.]

Posted by James at 07:45 PM | Permalink

This is one of those times. The lead singer is a friend of mine...and if you knew him, you would know why I am so proud.

P.S. - This is a Christian band...so you can let the kids listen and enjoy.

Posted by James at 08:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am getting a lot of search traffic for terms like "Richard Simmons and David Letterman" and I think this is why...

Posted by James at 09:56 PM | Permalink

(I write this as Sting sings some bizarre Christmas song like a eunuch on the NBC Rockefeller Christmas show. Sting is being accompanied tonight by Tiny Tim’s bastard brother, who normally travels with the Renaissance Festival, playing some kind of Mongoloid ukulele. This has nothing to do with this post, but it is freaking me out.)

If you do any work in the SEO world, you know that link baiting is one of the most talked about, beloved, difficult and prayed-about topics in our industry right now. After years of begging other desperate Webmasters to trade a link with you, blog spamming and renting expensive links, SEOers have decided that making cool shit is the best way to get lots and lots of free(ish) links.

This is good.

Continue reading "Websites as Graphs – Good Link Bait" »

Posted by James at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Design, design, design. It seems any business publication you read these days are talking about it. And for good reason – good design is what is setting the best products, services and websites apart from everything else.

Whenever design comes up, I always think of Tom Peter’s book Re-Imagaine and his chapters on design. To keep his mind focused on design, Tom carries a notebook with him and writes down design elements of things he likes or dislikes.

Cool idea, huh?

I thought about keeping a notebook of my own, but since I manage to pack my pockets with a ton of random stuff, I really don’t have room for it. But if I did, I can tell you what would be my #1 entry would be. The BMW M5.

If you ever see an M5, take a minute and really look at it. It is beautiful.

Oh yeah, and if anyone wants to give me an M5 to, uh, test drive…or blog about or whatever. Feel free to drop it off at my place anytime. :)

Posted by James at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Check out this very cool video about the Ghana Youth Photo Project. Watching it really reminded me of the trip I took to Ghana – such wonderful people in an amazing place.

It's very cool to see non-profits like this one showing up as featured videos on YouTube. It shows that YouTube could have a deeper purpose that just entertaining...

Posted by James at 03:07 PM | Permalink

I love this video...and I love hugs.

Thanks to Astaic for the link.

Posted by James at 07:41 PM | Permalink

This video cracks me up – and if you have ever listened to any electroclash bands like FischerSpooner (here is a great example) – it will crack you up too.

Thanks to Mr. Harvey for the link. I'm glad you like chili.

Posted by James at 07:12 PM | Permalink

Posted by James at 09:41 PM | Permalink

Be skurred – Line Rider is your new best friend…

Posted by James at 04:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am in the process of putting together a longer and hopefully insightful blog post, but in the mean time I will give you something funny and entertaining.

My uncle Todd works for the Fuel Network, which is a 24/7 adventure sports network. Sadly, I don’t get the station at my house, but it seems to be a favorite station to have on in bars, as that is where I always seem to see it. Fuel is owned by Fox, but you couldn’t really tell with the amount of creative freedom they seem to have.

Here are two good examples of that creative freedom - Danger Swimming and Crawbling. These are (as far as I know) Fuel’s first ventures into viral YouTube videos – and I gotta say they did a fantastic job. Check them out and be a good YouTube viewer and rate them (it means a lot to us video makers).

Posted by James at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I just got back from my first real speaking gig. I spoke at in Santa Barbara about blogging to a crowd that I would guess was a little over a hundred. I had an awesome time, met some fantastic people and got some really good feedback.

I think the coolest part was getting people excited and passionate about the opportunities they have in their businesses. And I was amazed by the number of companies that are “thinking about blogging” and I hope I got some of them motivated enough to take the plunge and start a blog of their own.

On an unrelated note, if you checked this blog yesterday you probably noticed that I was out of bandwidth. Thanks to the Bregar for hooking me up with more bandwidth – I swear I will stop freeloading and move this site to a new server soon.

In other news, Banksy is making more headlines, and instead of linking you directly to the news I am going to send you to my Banksy page on Squidoo, where I have updated the links section. Please go and visit the page, check out the RSS feeds, etc. I just broke the top 1,000 lenses on Squidoo and I want to see if I can keep the momentum going.

Oh yeah, and when you are there take a second and rate the page (the stars up at the top) – I think that is a part of the Squidoo ranking algorithm. Yeah, it’s a little cheap, but hey, a guy has gotta experiment right?

Posted by James at 08:06 PM | Permalink

As you may have figured out with my love for artists like Shepard Fairey and Banksy, I am a big fan of remarkable graffiti art (no, crappy tagging is not included in that category). And so much to my delight, I saw an article in Wired magazine on the Graffiti Research Labs.

It seems that the Graffiti Research Labs are looking into new forms of graffiti that leverage today’s technology to go beyond the spray paint world. And my personal favorite form is in LED throwies. What is an LED throwie? Well check out the videos below to find out (and make sure you watch them all).

The First LED Throwie
LED Throwies
LED Throwies II (you gotta love the soundtrack on this one)
Night Writers

Really interesting stuff – I gotta go to Radio Shack…

Posted by James at 09:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I took some time yesterday to build my first Squidoo lens – and I gotta say it was a pretty cool experience. Building the lens was very easy, the UI is straightforward, and the end result is darn good.

Here is the Banksy lens I created. I really dug the ability to add a the YouTube video and Flickr photo modules.

The more I check out other Squidoo lenses, the more opportunity I see in the idea.

Very cool stuff.

Posted by James at 02:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I have something to admit – I have always wanted to be a breakdancer.

After years in the rave scene I never learned how to spin on my head, or do the worm, or do that sweet ass leg kicky thing like breakdancers can. And that makes me sad. I wanted to pop and lock. I wanted to DANCE!

Ummmmmmm…..yeah.

So I found this site thanks to my favorite daily vlog, The 9, called Breakdance Crew – which might make all of my dreams come true. The site is a virtual how-to manual for breakdancing (check the move list).

If you are like me and all you want is a cool nickname like “Sub-Zero” or “Notorious J” and mad fat skillz on the dance floor – join the crew.

Now if you will excuse me, I am going to go try to track down a cardboard refrigerator box and my yellow short-shorts.

Posted by James at 08:22 PM | Permalink

Thanks to Mz. Pocket for the point to Banksy’s latest target – Paris “I’m a Singer Now” Hilton.

The BBC has the scoop here.

Fantastic!

Posted by James at 03:50 PM | Permalink

In a recent post, Guy Kawaski talked about 10 Things Students (and the rest of us) should learn this school year. One of his points was this:

11. How to use PowerPoint. I’ve seen the PowerPoint slides of professors—it’s no wonder that most people can’t use PowerPoint to sell hybrid cars when gas is $10/gallon. Maybe professors are thinking: “This is a one-hour class, I can cover one slide per minute, so I need sixty slides. Oh, and I’ve written all this text already in my textbook, so I’ll just copy and paste my twelve-point manuscript into the presentation.” Perhaps the tenure system causes this kind of problem. In the real world, this is no tenure so you need to limit yourself to ten slides, twenty minutes, and a thirty-point font—assuming that you want to get what you want.

Now I read this as I was putting together an MTV-esque PowerPoint for a presentation I am giving in Santa Barbara – and the PowerPoint was going to have a lot more than 10 slides…a lot more. So, with the power of blog comments on my side, I asked Guy (yes we are on a first name basis) if I should cut slides or keep with my original super-slide idea. His answer was to stick with the very slidey version, but to watch this Identity 2.0 presentation by Dick Hardt (no snickering) for inspiration.

Guy knows his stuff…the presentation is killer!

Posted by James at 07:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Wow – I have been slacking. Actually I have been more busy than slacking – but it sure feels like slacking.

Over the last few days I have found some links that I was going to post here – so here they are.

The 7 Deadly Sins of Advertising Via Online Video
Gnarly Car Crashes in a Tunnel Video (aka “Why You Should Have Auto Insurance”)
Velocity Art and Designs (cool art and home stuff for cool kids)
A List of the Top Graffiti Websites
BL Ochman Tells Us How Jane Magazine Has Become a Pimp

Enjoy!

Posted by James at 07:51 PM | Permalink

For some reason I am being followed by Kidrobot and his Dunny and Munny toys.

Three weeks ago I was at the First Friday art night on Santa Fe Blvd. in Denver when I saw a Kidrobot flier for their Munny decorating contest. I had no idea what it was, but the premise (paint a Munny toy and send it in to see if you can win a contest) seemed interesting. Eventually I chucked the flier and sort of forgot about it.

Today, I was looking at the lineup for the Fortune Innovation Forum (looks like one of the coolest conference I have ever seen) and I saw that the founder of Kidrobot, Paul Budnitz, was a speaker.

With that, I looked around for more information on Kidrobot. It turns out that Kidrobot produces collectible toys (or art depending on who you ask) that are sometimes designed with well known artists. Here are the links that I found, for your enjoyment.

Kidrobot Site

Vinyl Pulse Interview with Paul

More Information on Munnys

Buy a Munny

[Thanks to Uberbot for the photo]

Posted by James at 08:15 PM | Permalink

Finally - I got the Gapingvoid widget added to the navagation of Marketing Punk.

Cool stuff I say...

Posted by James at 09:07 PM | Permalink

Here are some things I have been meaning to post about:

Paint Bomb Building
Rocketboom is Back
Learn about Podcasts
MIT Innovation Videos (you better recognize)

Sorted...

Posted by James at 09:08 PM | Permalink

My two and a half year old Toshiba laptop is having a little overheating problem…actually it burns me and then shuts off after about 10 minutes of use. So, it is going into the shop tomorrow, and because of that, my blogging activity might be a little less than usual.

And thank you Mom for insisting on buying that 3 year warranty for me…mother does know best :)

Posted by James at 07:56 PM | Permalink

Inspiring stuff – check out Bansky. Also see some picture of the art of Banksy at Flickr.

Posted by James at 07:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From the Bregar – the kind of viral videos we should be making but not at work…

Posted by James at 07:21 PM | Permalink

I just got back from a week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Had a great time and got some reading and relaxing done. More on the reading later.

For now, here is a picture from downtown PV.

Posted by James at 07:23 PM | Permalink

I had a wild day down in the old coalmines, but this cheered me up like crazy…

Kenya Song

Thanks to my sister – keeper of the best viral links. :)

Posted by James at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is a bit of a management post, but I was in a management class today, so that’s what you get. I went to an interviewing class today for work and I thought I would share with you the favorite thing I learned.

When doing a job interview it is legally important to make sure the interviewee leaves feeling like they have had a fair shake. So when you get to the end of your interview questions ask this – Is there anything else I should know about you that is related to this position that we did not cover so far in this interview?

This question helps the interviewee feel like they have had a chance to share everything they think you need to know. Hopefully, after you ask this question and they have replied, they will leave the interview satisfied that they have discussed everything they wanted to.

Yeah, I know, not “call your mom” exciting, but a good thing to do.

Posted by James at 06:42 PM | Permalink

I got some more Gumball 3000 pictures posted last night. Check ‘em out and go CRAZY.

Posted by James at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I tried to explain this segment to my dad last night. Better to just show it...

Posted by James at 08:29 AM | Permalink

For when you are a little bored (or a lot) - the Museum of Modern Betas.

Nuff said.

[Thanks be to Seth]

Posted by James at 09:02 PM | Permalink

I actually saw him do this live in CA a few years back. Classic stuff.

Posted by James at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am reading the book Blink by Malcolm Gladwell which talks about the mind’s ability to make judgements by “thin-slicing” situations and making snap judgements based on the information you gather in a blink of an eye.

If you want to see some of the implications of “blink” thinking, go over to the Harvard website to take some IAT (Implicit Association Test) tests. Wild (and sometimes scary) stuff.

Posted by James at 08:58 PM | Permalink

My sister pointed out this interesting website called Worldmapper.

The site shows the world map with countries as different sizes depending on different metrics such as population, immigration, number of passenger cars, etc.

A very interesting and cool site to spend some time looking around (make sure you go past the first couple of pages).

Posted by James at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I caught a Frontline/World last night and it had a segment on the “Play Pump.” Please take the time to watch it here.

The play pump is a great example of social innovation and entrepreneurship – a field that I would love to be more involved in.

Make sure you check out the playpump.org website to see how you can help Africans get access to a lifetime of clean water.

Posted by James at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, I made a post today on my undisclosed work blog that talked about companies who are imitating Google and why they aren’t going to win by copying.

When I got home tonight I had my brand new copy of The Economist waiting for me, which makes me a bit too excited, but whatever. I started looking through the pages and I saw a special report on Google called “Fuzzy Math.”

This is how the article started:

Mathematically confidant drivers stuck in the usual jam on highway 101 through Silicon Valley were recently able to pass time contemplating a billboard that read: “{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com.” The number in question, 7427266391, is a sequence that starts at the 101st digit of e, a constant that is the base of the natural logarithm. The select few who worked this out and made it to the right website then encountered a “harder” riddle. Solving it led to another web page where they were finally invited to submit their curriculum vitae.

If a billboard can capture the soul of a company, this one did, because the anonymous company, this one did, because the anonymous advertiser was Google…

So my question to you, if you are trying to get the best talent out there – is your culture up to snuff?

Posted by James at 08:17 PM | Permalink

Ok,ok - enough Gumball talk you say!
Nay, Nay, I won't stop today...

Alright, that was decidedly lame, but I am short on time and energy tonight, so I will point you to a Gumball story written by Team 100 detailing their experience on the European leg

See the story hrrrrrr...

Posted by James at 08:32 PM | Permalink

Here is a quick slideshow of some of the photos from mainly Salt Lake City. More to come later..

Posted by James at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So we got back home yesterday and I know people want to see Gumball 3000 photos.

I want to see photos too, but I am making myself upload them to Flickr, because I have to be cool like that.

So, to hold you over, hit the Gumball Blog for all the goodness.

Posted by James at 08:15 PM | Permalink

We made it to Vegas from Salt Lake and had an amazing time. We took the official Gumball Route from SLC to the Bonnieville salt flats and then down highway 93, a two lane road made for speed. And speed we did...

Of course, we no matter how fast we traveled we were getting passed by the Gumball cars, until they all got nailed by the state patrol. At that point things got pretty quiet.

I got a lot of pics and video, but I will wait til I get back to Denver before I post them.

Overall, the experience was amazing and we had a fantastic time. My car did really well, I had no idea a car could be so smooth at over 100 mph.

Go Gumball!

Posted by James at 02:19 PM | Permalink

Alright, my trusty co-driver Kristi and I are heading out in the morning for Salt Lake City to catch up with the Gumball.

I am kinda busy packing at this point so I will point you to the Gumball Blog for your daily update (hint: Lambo carnage).

Hopefully we will get some good pictures up as we go.

And just in case you though I was above silly stunts to get blog traffic, allow me to prove you wrong.

More stunts to come...

Posted by James at 09:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I think I will let my man Deepak of Team 79 give you the rundown on traveling from Belgrade to Phuket with more than 200 Gumballers.

Here you go (also includes a pic of the Antinov cargo plane that is flying the cars around the world).

Posted by James at 08:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Gumballers are refueling in Abu Dabi right about now, on their way from Serbia to Phuket (I was wrong about the rally flying out of Budapest).

So, sounds like another crazy day. Sadly, a car that I was really looking forward to seeing is toast. Check out the death of the Camo Rolls Royce.

Thankfully, something good has come out of the death of the Rolls – here is this year’s Gumball trophy.

Team Polizei is kicking ass big time. But it looks like some bastards have messed with the car. I am sad to see the Polizei BMW M5 not making the race (it broke before the start) but the Polizei Bently Contintetal GT looks awesome. Hopefully I can get some pics this weekend.

Also, there is a rumor that team Tango might get out their Bugatti Veryon for the US leg…we shall see.

Getting very excited to get on the road on Friday.

Posted by James at 08:44 PM | Permalink

The cars are now in Budapest but the drive from London sounds like it has been a wild one.

Some of the highlights (and lowlights) were:

• 3 Teams Arrested in Germany (including Torquenstein)
• Team 24 Gets Pulled Over For the 8th Time and the Cops take a Joy Ride
• Team 72’s Dodge Viper Crashes (driver and co-driver fine)
• 4 Gumball Cars Impounded
• Pete from AntandPete hear that a Gumballer is in Jail – They Call the Prince

Alright – that’s it for now. The cars will be loaded up soon and shipped to Thailand for Leg 2!

Posted by James at 07:38 PM | Permalink

Looks like there is money on the line in the Gumball 3000. See the cars and the bet here.

Posted by James at 07:25 PM | Permalink

The Gumball has begun and you can track it all through Gumball Live.

Check it!

Posted by James at 08:57 PM | Permalink

The countdown is on for the Gumball 3000 rally.

8 days, 120 cars, 3 continents, 3000 miles.

I will be tagging along for about 500 miles of it, Salt Lake City to Nevada.

More later, but check out the Official Site and the Blog for more info.

Posted by James at 07:44 PM | Permalink

I was unaware of Yahoo! FareChase until today (yes, I am ashamed), but once I saw it I declared it the shiznit.

FareChase is basically an Ajax application that goes out and gets fares from multiple travel sites and aggregates them so you can see them all in one place. Very nice if you are like me and shop Expedia, Travelocity, Orbits and the others before buying a ticket.

And the really cool part is that you can go to Yahoo! search and type something like “flight denver to atlanta,” and when you hit the search button it will bring up the FareChase interface at the top of the search results. This kind of integration will probably make me use Yahoo! to start out all of my flight searches.

Plus the Ajax interface makes it look heckin’ smooth.

Here is an analysis of what Yahoo! FareChase might mean to the travel business from someone named Brian Smith.

Posted by James at 07:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

My girlfriend Kristi and I had Kristi’s parents over for Easter dinner on Sunday. We had a great time and, as usual, I had an enjoyable conversation with her father, Neil.

Neil is a very successful marketing guy who has decided to leave the marketing world and pursue his passion - human sexuality and counseling. A very big change and one that he is enjoying immensely.

The funny thing about Neil is that he is still a marketer at heart, and he can’t help but see the marketing opportunities that abound in his new industry.

Anyway, long story kinda short (and meandering), Neil and I talked about blogs, sites like Flickr, and Seth Godin’s Squidoo. I am very excited about the concept of making the users of your Web site the creators of the content and I think all of these site we discussed leverage the power of users and readers to create content.

So today as luck would have it (and strangely, my luck usually does), I ran across a very appropriate reading material that delves into this topic a bit. The book, Seth Godin’s short e-book “Flipping the Funnel,” is a good starting point for many people who are trying to understand some of the new trends in the online space.

This is the second time I ran across “Flipping the Funnel” but the first time I actually read it – and I am glad I did.

Pay special attention to the idea of Squidoo. I have said it before, I think Seth is on to something.

Posted by James at 07:48 PM | Permalink

Meet Kyle MacDonald.

I would put him in the same category as Alex Tew – the creator, as you may remember, of the Million Dollar Homepage.

Kyle has been making some trades with people. He started with a red paperclip, then traded for a fish shaped pen, then traded that for a smiley faced doorknob, which he traded for a Coleman camping stove. For every trade he made, he took the item and traded it for something else. The trades continued for things like a snowmobile, a vacation to Canada, and a record recording contract.

Now he has traded up to a one-year lease for a duplex in Arizona. Now remember, this is all from making trades from that original red paperclip. Pretty cool, eh?

See the full story here and the ABC news interview here.

Posted by James at 06:14 PM | Permalink

Too many Evil Overlords blow it. That sucks.

Don’t fail – follow the rules:

How to be A Successful Evil Overlord

Tips like #13 –

All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least several round of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

I will never employ any device with a digital count-down. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable. I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

will get you far in the Evil Overlord world.

Thanks to Seth for pointing out the site.

Posted by James at 08:17 PM | Permalink

175.74 Cans.

How do I know? It’s the Death By Caffeine Web site!

All you have to do is plug in your favorite energy drink, your body weight, press “Kill Me,” and then you will find out how many beverages it will take to croak you.

Good times.

Make sure you try it with a few different drinks and enjoy the funny messages.

Also, you can use the Death By Penguin Mints, which will figure out the lethal levels for caffeinated snacks.

Posted by James at 07:44 PM | Permalink

Last night I skipped blogging to go down to the Denver Rescue Mission and help serve dinner to the homeless. As always, it was a very rewarding experience.

Please, if you are not doing so already, take at least an evening a month and go help out someone in your community. Whether it is the homeless, your neighbors, Boy Scouts, or anyone who is in need.

If everyone would just volunteer a night a month, the world would be a significantly better place.

Think about it.

Posted by James at 08:42 PM | Permalink

In a past life, I was a stockbroker. For three and a half years of my life, I lived and breathed the stock market. The day I left that job, I quit caring about the stock market.

So it takes a lot for me to get excited about anything that has to do with the stock market.

But I am diggin’ Google Finance. I know there are haters out there – like nitinjulka over at Search Engine Watch (the second post) – but I think it is pretty cool. And a friend of mine at work (who gives a damn about the market) really digs it and is going to start using it instead of Yahoo! finance. So suck it nitinjulka.

Check out the graphs feature – very groovy stuff.

Posted by James at 08:01 PM | Permalink

Over at the Gumball 3000 Rally blog there is a great post with a review of the Koenigsegg CC8S from British car show Top Gear. The car is Swedish, so it has a great Scandinavian design aura about it. The doors themselves are something to behold.

Did I mention it is ridiculously fast? Try 0-60 in 3 seconds.

This car makes me go crazy.

Posted by James at 07:36 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (1)

If you don’t know about the Gumball 3000 rally – heducate yo’ self here (an awesome site by the way).

This year the Gumball is going around the world in 8 days – that’s right, a driving rally going around the world in 8 days.

How? Private jets, a 20,000 GBP per car entrance fee, and a full dose of pure insanity.

There are 3 legs this year and they are:

 Mission 1 – London to Istanbul
 Mission 2 – Hong Kong to Beijing
 Mission 3 – Salt Lake City to Los Angeles (that’s right! Gumball in our back yards)

That’s 3,000 miles in 8 days folks. And since it is a Gumball, it also means that there will be 120 of the most exotic cars driven by movie stars, trust fund babies, Arab sheiks and some of the most obnoxious rich people in the world.

So, I am wondering if anyone has an extra spot in his or her car for a Marketing Punk who would be a very impressive co-driver? And I am also a very good driver. My dad lets me drive up and down the driveway. K-Mart sucks, definitely.

So, any takers? I sure someone will come through. Well, leave a comment or email me or something. Seriously. I can even pay my way to London. :)

Well, if no one drops me a line I am going to try to make it to Vegas or something to see the cars go by. Even better, I might tag along for the Salt Lake to Vegas leg…who knows?

Now I just gotta get a sports car…

And now for a bonus quote, I think it fits the Gumball well…

"But our trip was different. It was to be a classic affirmation of everything right and true in the national character. A gross physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country. But only for those with true grit. And we are chock full of that, man." - Raoul Duke

[BONUS LINK] Required Gumball Reading - The Vanity Fair Article on the 2004 Gumball

Posted by James at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Who ever came up with the concept of putting an animated character on a Web site to increase sales probably never realized they were in the process of creating one of the silliest Web apps ever.

Today I ran across an advertisement for Sitepal on some Web site and I got to experience the joy of screwing around with Sitepal for the third time.

If you want to have fun with Sitepal too, I suggest you follow these two links:

To make Sitepal talk – go here. Remember to type in something ridiculous.

To change how the Sitepals look - go here. You can see my transformation of their George W. Bush pal going from regular Bush to Bushy Big Pimpin’.

Have fun, and don't forget to watch your pal's creepy, creepy eyes...

Posted by James at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

If you want some of the coolest fonts out there, hop on over to cool-fonts.com where Font Master Todd does his magic. The fonts are extremely cool and good for any of that cutting edge design work you may be doing.

One of my favorites is Yaroslav, which is based off of the handwriting of a gifted artist over in the Czech Republic. I can confirm that the font looks like his handwriting because I met Yaroslav many years ago.

Also check out Smash, Freak, Overexposed, Killer Ants and Jean Splice.

Todd’s fonts have been used all over the place like PC Plus Magazine, and have been written up in publications like the New York Times.

So go buy some cool fonts at Cool Fonts – you will be cooler for it. Cool?

Posted by James at 08:12 PM | Permalink

You may or may not remember the commotion around Dean Kamen’s “It” back in the late 90’s (maybe early 2000s). For those who don’t, renowned inventor Dean Kamen started a buzz about an invention he made that was going to “change the way we live” when it was unveiled. The speculation about what “It” was got a bit out of hand. I remember speculation that “It” was a personal jetpack, a levitation device, or maybe even a hover car.

When the day came to unveil “It” the world let out a collective “aw crap” when they saw that “It” was the Segway Scooter. It turns out that the Segway has changed the way that it’s owners live because it has kept all of them un-laid since they plunked down five thousands bucks to have one. That’s right – the “It” was a over-hyped birth control device.

(I do still think it is funny that George W. Bush ate it on a Segway, even though it is billed as nearly impossible to crash. But I digress.)

Anyway, our boy Dean has come out with his next great invention, the Centaur. And aside from being named like a gay bar, it actually looks pretty cool! Even though the site says they do not plan on producing the Centaur for sale, you have to figure they will eventually. Hopefully they will be able to crank these things out without a $10,000 price tag.

I have to thank Mr. Kamen for not over hyping this invention. God knows, if the Segway “changed the way we live,” then I am sure the Centaur will give every man, woman, and child a reason to live, shelter, and a lifetime supply of hot pockets.

Posted by James at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Bregar has put together a good list of must-have Firefox extensions. One of them is the Web Developer Toolbar which, among other things, lets you modify style sheets on the fly – great for checking out CSS changes in real time.

You want to see the rest of the Extensions? I got your extensions right here.

Posted by James at 07:31 PM | Permalink

Sony has put out some really great PSP commercials lately that feature hilariously strange cartoons. I think the best is the one with the squirrels – watch it here.

What I really like about the commercial is that they tell you nothing about the product. There are no features, no actual pictures of the product, and there is no description of what the product is.

The agency that developed this ad realized something very important – by creating an entertaining and fun commercial they will be able to avoid boring their core audience and generate a buzz that could lead to new customers down the line.

Think about it. What can you tell a hardcore gamer about the PSP in a 30-second spot that they do not already know? Passionate video gamers know all about the whistles and bells of the PSP and have already made up their mind if they need to purchase one or not. Chances are you will not be able to create a successful 30-second informational sales pitch that will convince an educated video gamer to cough up 250 bucks that they don’t want to spend.

So the core market ends up being entertained. Maybe there is a little bit of attitude branding that will be attached to the PSP name. Good stuff. But what about the people who don’t even know what a PSP is? Isn’t Sony missing out by not telling them about the PSP and what it can do for them?

Not at all.

Continue reading "“It’s Like A Nut You Can Play With Outside”" »

Posted by James at 08:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Seth Godin has a great interview with e-consultancy discussing the future of online marketing. Some of my favorite questions and answers are:

Q. About 7 years ago you suggested that banner ads would be finished by 2000. Well, we're still seeing them, but paid-search is now king. Is there a place on the web for display advertising?

A. I was awfully close to being right, my friend. The value of online banner ads is close to zero. The best display ads are contextual, relevant and interesting. And not banner shaped.

Q. I guess that the majority of online marketers still perceive the web as an acquisition channel, rather than a customer relationship channel. Would you agree?

A. I would agree that they perceive it that way, and of course, they'd be expensively and dangerously wrong

I also found his explanation of his current project, Squidoo, very interesting:

Continue reading "Seth Godin, The Future of Online and Squidoo" »

Posted by James at 04:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This beautiful site prepares you for life by helping you identify two types of people you run into every day, programming language inventors and serial killers.

Take some time and see if you can tell who is who.

Posted by James at 10:33 AM | Permalink

Looks like TiVo is smartly jumping on the iPod video and PSP portable video bandwagon by coming out with a way to transfer your TiVo recorded programs over to your portable player. See the Reuter's story here.

Hopefully the cable and dish companies will be able to follow suit. If they can do it at a reasonable price the demand for portable video devices will go through the roof.

I will probably still hold onto my money until I get one for free :)

Posted by James at 07:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The $100 laptop that was developed by MIT to be given to the world's poorest children has been unveiled in Tunisia. See the full story here.

Posted by James at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Special Olympics Volunteer

Today my girlfriend and I had the honor of watching encouraging participants in the Colorado Special Olympics Bowling competition. We were blessed to have met the seven athletes that were competing on our lanes and truly amazed by their abilities.

It is great to see the excitement of all of the athletes and be a part of a day that showcases their athletic skills. No matter what physical or mental issue they may have, the athletes were there to compete and have fun, and they accomplished what they came for.

I really want to thank Russell, Jesse, Doug, John, Ron, Tanya and George for showing me the amazing abilities of those who are less able.

I encourage anyone who wants to volunteer to a good cause to consider giving time to the Special Olympics. I promise that you will get a lot more out of the experience than you put in.

Posted by James at 03:39 PM | Permalink

There is some buzz going around about the “Kayak Buzz” – a cool web application that uses Google maps and the Kayak travel service to map the best fares the most searched for destinations. I am sure I am not the only one who has always hoped for this kind of application from an online travel service.

All you need to do is type in your city and Kayak Buzz will give you airfare for multiple locations and map out the routes to give you a visual representation of the flights. I checked fares from Denver there are definitely some good prices out there.

Way to go Kayak!

Posted by James at 09:55 AM | Permalink

Ok, so they are trendy. And yes, their "history" is suspect. But I LOVE MY MOLESKINE NOTEBOOKS.

I bought my first Moleskine at a Barnes and Noble a few months ago, and then I bought another, and another, and another. Now I have five of them. They are like an addiction. I find excuses to buy them. You should buy them too.

I dig the graph paper kind but there are ruled ones, blank ones, and ones made for sketching. They all have a cool built in pocket and bookmark and they have a handy elastic strap that keeps them closed.

Turns out I am not the only Moleskine lover. Fast Company called them the Anti-PDA. There is an even an online Moleskine community.

So join the cool kids club and buy a Moleskine :P

Posted by James at 07:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When you have a some time to kill and you are looking for good old family entertainment, check out homestarrunner.com.

The best places on the site are "Toons" (especially the "Teen Girl Squad" and "Puppet Stuff" area - check out the song "Everybody Knows It") and "Strong Bad Emails" (the classics are "Dragon" and "Kids Book").

Enjoy!

Posted by James at 09:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A friend told me about the gapingvoid Web site a while back but I recently revisited it to read the essay on "How to Be Creative." The essay is pretty long but is worth the read, especially for those of you who have a knack for creativity but find the 9 to 5 lifestyle suppressing your inner creative.

The author is a brit named Hugh who has managed to parlay his drunken pasttime of drawing cartoons on the backs of his business cards into a full time gig of being a "blogvertising" consultant. Way to go Hugh, if we could only all find that kind of successful outlet. More about Hugh and the gapingvoid.

For those of us who might not be able to find that outlet fulltime, we may feel better after reading Hugh's "Sex and Cash Theory."

Posted by James at 09:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Do you have $40,000 and a need to go REALLY, REALLY, REALLY fast? Sure you do!

Behold the Ariel Atom.